My Azure Standard drop managers asked me to take a drop point. Tim & Laura who manage our AS drop are taking care of a friend with cancer, the bi-monthly AS order has become a bit too much for them, so I agreed to handle one of the routes. We have two routes that come through town, the I-1 and I-2 routes. We have what's called an open drop where anyone in the area can order and have it delivered to a drop point (me or Tim & Laura) then they come and collect there stuff. It's a nice way to save on gas so the truck driver doesn't deliver to everyone's house it all just goes to your drop manager. A closed drop would be you and several of your friends only, as long as you make the minimum $500 order. It's riskier with an open drop because you might not make that $500 but this way everyone gets a chance to play. In our area we are one of AS's biggest drop routes. The goods for tomorrow's drop are in the $800 area, but usually they are nearing $1,600. That's a lot of buying power!
Tomorrow during a snowstorm will be my first ever drop. The truck driver will show up, hand me a stack of invoices and start unloading the truck. I'll run inside and start calling everyone to let them know the truck and goods have arrived. Then they'll show up and collect stuff, viola done!
It's pretty straight forward and according to Tim & Laura everyone is pretty good about coming to get stuff. I'm looking forward too it, maybe I'll post some pictures tomorrow?
28 February 2012
17 February 2012
New Girls in Town
Since we've had nothing but broody from the Sussex girls we've decided to refresh the flock. I opted to go with black star, (I have tried red star in the past) and buff Orpington. One of our Sussex girls will get to remain, I'd like it to be "ooh shiny" (yes that's her name) but she's a roo in a hens body and we might get some major bullying if I allow her to stay. At this point I'm not sure which sussie will get a pass, but it's a real game of survival now. This way I'll have 'curious' our grandma buff orpington who has a permanent freezer pass, one sussie, and the new black star's and BO.
So with that said it's baby chick time:
I do intend to put the Sussies up for sale on Craigslist just in case anyone in my area is looking for broody hens. Since most people use an incubator to hatch chicks, I doubt I'll be able to sell them all. We'll see.
So with that said it's baby chick time:
I do intend to put the Sussies up for sale on Craigslist just in case anyone in my area is looking for broody hens. Since most people use an incubator to hatch chicks, I doubt I'll be able to sell them all. We'll see.
12 February 2012
Garden Redux
Our garden layout looks like this:
The raised beds were spaced this far apart to accommodate the garden cart which has two very wide wheels. The thought of all that pathway now is unthinkable! In this state our growing square footage for the ENTIRE garden is 640 square feet. When we go to row gardens we'll be roughly up to 1,400 square feet! AHH!!!! That's so much more growing space! This means more potatoes and finally I'll have room to grow squash and cukes! But with the decision to row garden comes an entire garden redux. Actually it will be much easier. The drip line and watering will be the same just extended to longer garden beds. The raised bed wood has plans too... it's going to become the bones for our wood shed. Because currently we have a giant pile of firewood right in the middle of the garden.
Slowly on nice days we've been dismantling the raised beds, and organizing the drip lines. With tree's to plant and espalier and a garden to reorganize it's gonna be a busy spring. I love this time of year, it's full of possibilities!
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The raised beds were spaced this far apart to accommodate the garden cart which has two very wide wheels. The thought of all that pathway now is unthinkable! In this state our growing square footage for the ENTIRE garden is 640 square feet. When we go to row gardens we'll be roughly up to 1,400 square feet! AHH!!!! That's so much more growing space! This means more potatoes and finally I'll have room to grow squash and cukes! But with the decision to row garden comes an entire garden redux. Actually it will be much easier. The drip line and watering will be the same just extended to longer garden beds. The raised bed wood has plans too... it's going to become the bones for our wood shed. Because currently we have a giant pile of firewood right in the middle of the garden.
Slowly on nice days we've been dismantling the raised beds, and organizing the drip lines. With tree's to plant and espalier and a garden to reorganize it's gonna be a busy spring. I love this time of year, it's full of possibilities!
08 February 2012
Heeling in fruit trees
Jake and I have been evaluating our major food purchases from last year. Aside from grain which we can't grow in quantity, we spent most of our money on fruit. We can grow soft fruits like straw-,rasp- and blueberries. Our freak show (5 graft) apple has started to produce some fruit but other than that we purchase most stone fruit, like peaches and cherries. So with that said I made a pretty impressive purchase of fruit trees that we intend to espalier along all fences. If we allow 8' for each tree we can roughly get 20 trees on site! I just purchased 10 trees and 4 current bushes. In other fruit tree news, our neighbors got a shipment of fruit trees last year and by shipment I mean over 100 trees! It helps to know orchard people... anyway they've agreed to give us our pick once they see what survives this winter. They were hoping to get 15 full size trees and had a jaw dropping moment when several packages with TONS of trees arrived. Being slightly overwhelmed they just trenched them in and were going to prep the ground for their orchard this spring. Long story short, we'll get some leftovers!
So my list of newly purchased fruities goes like this: All are on dwarfing root stocks.
Current- Red Lake- 4 bushes
Apple- Honey Crisp
Plum- Japanese Elephant Heart
Cherry- Craig's Crimson
Lapins
Stella
Peach- Redhaven
Red Baron
Nectarine- White Arctic Jay
Pear- European Comice
European Bosc
I know the neighbors for sure have an excess of plums and apricots, so I decided to purchase the trees I know I love and crap shoot with the free trees. Here they are being "heeled in" in our garage. The trees are still dormant so I raised a pot off the ground so the cement wouldn't cool the roots too much and basically planted 5 trees to a pot until the ground thaws. They should keep just fine for a month until the ground thaws enough to dig holes. *Fingers crossed*
I do want to purchase some blackberries which is one soft fruit we don't have growing yet. But I think I'll try and find a type I like at a nursery locally, maybe thornless? We do have a grape growing called Himrod but with a late frost last year all it's top growth was killed and it had to come back from the roots. We'll see if it had enough time to bulk up before winter, I do hope it survives.
So my list of newly purchased fruities goes like this: All are on dwarfing root stocks.
Current- Red Lake- 4 bushes
Apple- Honey Crisp
Plum- Japanese Elephant Heart
Cherry- Craig's Crimson
Lapins
Stella
Peach- Redhaven
Red Baron
Nectarine- White Arctic Jay
Pear- European Comice
European Bosc
I know the neighbors for sure have an excess of plums and apricots, so I decided to purchase the trees I know I love and crap shoot with the free trees. Here they are being "heeled in" in our garage. The trees are still dormant so I raised a pot off the ground so the cement wouldn't cool the roots too much and basically planted 5 trees to a pot until the ground thaws. They should keep just fine for a month until the ground thaws enough to dig holes. *Fingers crossed*
I do want to purchase some blackberries which is one soft fruit we don't have growing yet. But I think I'll try and find a type I like at a nursery locally, maybe thornless? We do have a grape growing called Himrod but with a late frost last year all it's top growth was killed and it had to come back from the roots. We'll see if it had enough time to bulk up before winter, I do hope it survives.
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